The Egoist (A Norton Critical Edition) [Paperback]

George Meredith (Author), Robert M. Adams (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393091716 | ISBN-13: 978-0393091717 | Publication Date: January 17, 1979

This edition of Meredith's satirical novel of manners reprints the text of 1897, which incorporated Meredith's revisions to the first edition of 1879.

The editor has corrected some errors which escaped Meredith's attention and has provided exceptionally useful notes on the novel.

"Backgrounds" includes Meredith's "Essay on Comedy and the Uses of the Comic Spirit."

"The Critical Essays" are by Robert D. Mayo, Richard B. Hudson, Jenni Calder, Gillian Beer, John Goode, Charles J. Hill, Michael Sundell, Virginia Woolf, John Lucas, and Robert M. Adams.

A Bibliography is also included.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert M. Adams was Professor of English (Emeritus) at the University of California at Los Angeles. He was the author of many books, including Ikon: John Milton and the Modern Critics; Strains of Discord; Proteus, His Lies, His Truth: Discussion of Literary Translation; The Land and Literature of England; and Shakespeare—The Four Romances. In addition to the Norton Critical Edition of Utopia (he was translator and editor of the First and Second Editions), Professor Adams was editor of five other Norton Critical Editions, including The Prince by Machiavelli, Candide by Voltaire, and The Praise of Folly and Other Writings by Erasmus, the texts of which he also translated. He was a founding editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (January 17, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393091716
• ISBN-13: 978-0393091717
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Comedy of Manners, June 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Egoist (A Norton Critical Edition) (Paperback)

This is one of the funniest novels I've ever read. The basic story is simple: Sir Willoughby Patterne's betrothal to the young Clara Middleton is threatened when she realizes his enormous love of himself. The novel consists of Clara's efforts to get out of the engagement without doing something so scandalous as eloping with someone else.

The characters are drawn vividly and with depth. The incidents are both amusing and realistic. Clara Middleton is one of the great witty heroines of English literature, perhaps the wittiest Victorian heroine.

The beginning can be slow going. Meredith likes to use twenty words when other people might use ten. He also likes to play verbal games. As you proceed in the novel and get used to the style, you can have a lot of fun picking out the puns, allusions, etc.

This is Meredith's best novel. The plot is tightly controlled and the ending is pure comedy in the tradition of Fielding, Austen and Thackeray. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who feels comfortable reading Victorian English and likes a good love-comedy.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest novels of the Victorian century, September 2, 2001

By 

Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Egoist (A Norton Critical Edition) (Paperback)

Meredith's masterpiece is woefully underread, and it is a sad truth that the Norton scholarly edition is the only edition of THE EGOIST now in print. This is not an easy read, however: Meredith's caustic dialogue foreshadows henry James's in its mastery of ambiguities, and his witty paradoxes surpass even Oscar Wilde (who admitted his debt to Meredith). The plot is a simple one: the wealthy handsome and titled Sir Willoughby Patterne, having been jilted by one fiancée, proposes to another young woman, the intelligent and intensely likeable Clara Middleton, who accepts him; before very long, Clara has realized what a monstrous egoist Sir Willoughby is, but not after it seems too late for her to go back on her word. This is one of the most brilliant studies of mortification ever accomplished, and what makes it all the more amazing is that Meredith clearly modelled Sir Willoughby in part on himself and the extraordinarily sympathetic Clara on his wife, Mary Ellen Peacock, who deserted Meredith for another man. This book is funny, thought-provoking, and exceptionally poignant: there are moments when you read it that your heart will go into your stomach as you sympathize with Clara's appalling plight.